Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Nearly 200 arts organisations in England have been told that their funding will end from next April in the biggest and most bloody cull since the Arts Council was set up more than 50 years ago.

Pre-Christmas letters from Arts Council England have been dropping on the mats of groups across the arts, telling them they cannot expect to continue receiving public money.

Many organisations will, however, have had good news. Of the 990 bodies which get funding, three-quarters have been told to expect inflation or above rises.

No official list of winners and losers has yet been released, but as The Stage reports, the funding review has upset many organisations.

Richard Pulford, a former deputy secretary general of the arts council and now chief executive of the Society of London Theatre and the Theatrical Management Association - many of whose members have been affected - told The Stage he was “extremely unhappy at both the process and the outcomes” of ACE’s decisions.

He added: “It seems extraordinary to me there could have been nearly 200 organisations that were worth funding this year, that aren’t next year. It looks like cutting for the sake of cutting. I don’t understand the rationale for it. We are very concerned that many organisations were given little or no forewarning and some have been cut by regional offices when they aren’t regional organisations. There seems to be no central policy.

“If you are cutting around a quarter of your portfolio, then there must have been something wrong with your portfolio in the first place - and whose fault is that?”

1 comment:

Eastern Angles Theatre Company is major casualty in this funding fiasco. They tour high quality original plays around the theatrical deserts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and East Cambridgeshire. They only perform original work. They have just been recognised in the 2007 TMA /Stage Awards for their special achievement in regional theatre "in recognition of 25 years of producing high quality work". And they walked off with two best actress awards for their production of Truckstop at the Edinburgh Festival. The Arts Council has responded by cutting their grant by a whopping 50%. Yes. Good plan.

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